Before Daylight by ANDIE J. CHRISTOPHER

Author:ANDIE J. CHRISTOPHER
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

It had been four years, three months, and six days since Charlie had spoken to his father over the phone. When he went to visit his brother and sister-in-law at Northwestern Memorial Hospital the day his youngest nephew was born two-and-a-half years ago, the schedules had gotten messed up, and he’d come face-to-face with his father.

Joseph Laughlin had nodded his head, turned, and walked out of the waiting room. Charlie’s mother patted his arm, but then hurried after her husband. The years since seeing his father hadn’t faded the ache in his chest that he felt every time he thought of his family.

Picking up the phone to tell his father he was married made him realize why he’d been yearning to settle down over the past couple of years. He’d thought it had been because he’d gotten to hold his nephew. But really, it was about wanting to feel like he belonged to someone.

And it wasn’t like what he’d done was that bad. He’d gone out on his own, and done some sleazy shit. It was the fact that he’d done it publically, and it reflected poorly on his family. The Laughlin family name was everything to Joe-the-third.

For a hundred years, the Laughlins had owned the most respected newspaper in the Midwest. And, under his father’s leadership, the family business had grown to include newspapers and local television stations all over the country. Joe had been able to grow in a business that most people were failing at.

Charlie’s hands shook as he entered his father’s direct office line. He would be a man and not send news of his wedding in an email to his whole family, which was the only way he’d communicated with his father for those four years, three months, and six days.

His father picked up on the third ring. “What do you want?”

He would take offense, but that was the only way his dad had ever answered the phone. Even when they were little kids. “I wanted to tell you that I got married.”

Joe appreciated communications being right to the point.

“Is she a porn star or a centerfold?”

That would have been a safe assumption when he was in his early twenties. Several of the girls on the The Single Guy had gone on to illustrious careers in adult entertainment. And with the benefit of years, Charlie had often wondered if he’d altered their lives in a bad way, but he tried to shake it off. Coming from a place of shame was not the right way to approach his father.

“Neither. She’s a dancer.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” Charlie could see his dad shaking his head and patting himself down for a cigarette—a habit he’d given up when his sons were still small—from a thousand miles away. “You married a stripper?”

“Not a stripper. A principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet.” His father was silent. “Laura Delgado.”

“When did this happen?”

“A few months ago.”

“And you’re just calling me now?” Joe was probably standing now, looking out the window of his office on the deep-brown colored Chicago River.

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